Afghanistan
A letter won't educate Afghan girls
Well, that’ll show ‘em. Liz Truss has released a joint statement with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declaring themselves…
A Canadian’s experience of the migrant’s ordeal
No one boards an overladen dinghy and sets out across a choppy sea without very good reason. Laden into migrant…
Could an uprising succeed against the Taliban?
The social media accounts of the new so-called ‘National Resistance Front’ (NRF) in Afghanistan give the impression of a raging…
Operation Save Big Dog and the real scandal of Boris’s leadership
There is a theory which states the primary reason for Boris Johnson’s political longevity is that there are simply so…
What happens to Afghan migrants when they reach the UK?
What happens to Afghan migrants when they reach the UK?
Afghanistan: five shocking claims made by the Foreign Office whistleblower
Dominic Raab faced the media round from hell this morning. The former Foreign Secretary faced a series of questions about…
We should never have been in Afghanistan
Two important studies have been published this autumn on the apparent failure of our almost 20-year war in Afghanistan. In…
How Muslim are the Taliban?
I first met Haji Mir, a tribal elder from Helmand, in Herat in western Afghanistan in 2002, not long after…
Now I’m a backbencher, I’m free to speak my mind
Politicians are supposed to have a survival instinct. Mine didn’t kick in last week, so I had no idea that…
Biden is losing Nato
The forming of the Australia-UK-US (Aukus) military alliance in the Pacific shows how everything Trump can say, Biden can do.…
Should we listen to Shamima Begum's verdict on the hijab?
What should one make of Shamima Begum’s appearance on Good Morning Britain? The London schoolgirl left the UK in 2015 to…
How stable is the Taliban government?
Some western governments and media have been involved in a collective act of wishful thinking in recent months over the…
The rise of Taliban Twitter
The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was swift, but this victory wasn’t won overnight. For years, the Taliban has been waging…
You can't keep an American exceptionalist down
Like millions of other Americans I was riveted by the images of chaos and despair at the Kabul airport as US…
Letters: In defence of GPs
Out of practice Sir: GPs are not ‘hiding behind their telephones’ (Leading article, 4 September). In-person appointments are the core…
Portrait of the week: Tax rises, Tube gets busier and Taliban names its government
Home Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, announced a new tax in the Commons branded a ‘health and social care levy’.…
Life under the Taliban’s charm offensive
The Taliban Cultural Commission sounds a contradiction in terms but for all foreign journalists it’s the first stop in the…
Ahmad Shah Massoud was Afghanistan’s best hope
Ahmed Shah Massoud was described as ‘the Afghan who won the Cold War’. While famous in France (he was educated…
Is it time to defund the world’s policeman?
It gets lost in the many creative purposes successive American administrations invented to justify remaining in Afghanistan, but the primary…
The 9/11 anniversary marks a painful moment for squaddies
The sweet salvation of the summer recess over, we returned to Sandhurst for our final term of officer training. It was…
How the fight against terror in Afghanistan will change
In the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the West entered a new age: it was the era of the ‘shadow…
The West is being played by the Taliban
There have been some curious juxtapositions in Afghanistan this week. On the one hand, the under-19 Afghan cricket team was…
Portrait of the week: Britain leaves Afghanistan, hurricane hits New Orleans and Gove goes clubbing
Home Britain brought its last troops home from Afghanistan, having flown out more than 15,000 people since 14 August; but…
Letters: The agony of the forgotten Australians
A glimmer of hope Sir: After the debacle of the West’s shambolic withdrawal from Afghanistan, it was comforting to read…
Pet project: how many dogs and cats are there in Britain?
Escape velocity The evacuation of Afghanistan was likened to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. What were the…
